Life in Progress
by meganisnotgraceful
Summary: The Hellfire club is in hiding, Cuba didn't happen and Erik and Charles are still in the mansion with the kids. Family fic.


Alex grunted as Erik added more weight onto the machine, increasing the training regiment due to Alex back taking or something stupid like that. Honestly, the man acted like he was his father. But that's why Alex did what he could to put the Polish native in his place. He already had a father and it definitely isn't the man counting how many bench presses he could do in a minute. Stupid old man. Alex grunted again and stared blankly at the ceiling above him, just waiting for the timer to go off so that he could go shower and get the hell out of here before the man could let his power go to his head.

"Time." Erik called, lifting the bar from Alex's tired grasp and pulled the boy, definitely not man, into the sitting position. "27, four less then yesterday. Try harder this time." He pushed Alex back down, ignoring the indignant protest from Alex and lowered the bar back into his grasp. "We will not stop until you beat 31. You could even beat forty if you spent more time on your off time training instead of running your mouth."

Alex wanted to tell him exactly what he thought of beating 31 but the timer had already started and he found himself automatically pumping the metal. There was no point in fighting with the man right now, not when he had control over every machine in the room and probably had a secret lusting for bashing in the heads of "children". And Alex would also like to point out that he never ran his mouth because that implies that he was starting shit but all that shit was already started and everyone else was just pissed because he was actually talking about it instead of pretending it wasn't actually happening. But Alex held his breath and pushed up the bar one last time before Erik pulled it out of his reach.

"I think that is enough for tonight. Go shower off and try not to make any more trouble for yourself, because we both know you've caused enough trouble for the day." Erik told him while helping him off the bench and to his feet. Alex grunted a reply and headed out, knowing that it was best to just end the night without a problem with their resident Nazi hunter.

Alex hated the mansion. It was dark and silent and reminded him too much of the group home he stayed at when he was fourteen that had been run by a church. And even though the group home had at least twelve more people in it then Xavier Mansion, it had been just as silent as to not be forced to repeat Hail Mary while holding a penny to the wall with your nose. And this had all been worse for Alex because he had honestly thought that Hail Mary was just that and not a prayer so he tended to get in more trouble because they thought he was being insubordinate. He had just never been raised religious.

He passed his first check point of a painting of what he assumed was Aphrodite and then the giant antic vase with roses painted around the base, both signifying he was in the right hallway. After getting lost just going to breakfast the first few days Alex had decided to make himself checkpoints, which also included moving certain things to certain parts of hallways so that he could find his way. He realized soon after that Hank, Sean and Erik were using them as well so sometimes he really just wanted to move the artifacts right back to where they were but Alex wasn't stupid, he knew that he would probably be the only one to get lost again. Directions just weren't his thing.

He nudged open his bedroom door, slamming it so that Sean knew to lower his Beatles so that Alex could sleep. Ever since he was in the religious group home he couldn't sleep with nose, it forced him to stay partially awake, something that made him very grumpy in the morning. The Beatles from across the hallway was finally quieted, not turned off but Alex could deal with that until he actually wanted to sleep and grabbed a different pair of sweats to change into after his shower.

The only thing Alex would admit to liking is the solitude that came with shower time. There were so many bathrooms in the place that no one was ever knocking on the door to piss because they could just go to one down the hall or upstairs or downstairs. It was like he had his own bathroom which would be the only thing, besides his room, that was just his in a sense. Sean and Hank, who lived on the same floor, would use this bathroom too but once someone was in there it was theirs until they were done because everyone else had a place to go.

"So how was training with Alex tonight?" Charles asked as he wandered into the den where Erik was seated on a plush chair with a coffee and the radio on at a low volume. This is where Erik usually spent his free time because there wasn't a tv so the younger ones wouldn't be there and Erik could have comfortable alone time until Charles decided to interrupt him.

Erik looked up from his coffee and grunted in reply. "As it always is. Constantly a struggle for dominance. He refuses to stop his bickering and whining with everyone else so often that his concentration on himself falters." And it was these traits that Erik saw in Alex that Erik saw in himself that caused him to push the blond harder. He knew it was useless, you could practically beat that boy to death and he still wouldn't give up.

"I suppose we will just have to try harder with him. We found him in solitary confinement, Erik. And we don't know where he was before that because I refuse to intrude his mind for answers he'll probably try to hide from me anyway. He never even called home. That boy has problems that probably dig deep." Charles replied, taking up the overly stuffed chair adjacent to the Polish man. They would have to try to connect with all of the children but Alex just seemed to be harder, hidden under this cracked mask he was trying so hard to fix. Not unlike Erik when he first met him Charles sometimes thought. And he supposed that was why Erik tried so hard with Alex, Erik had been to hell and almost didn't come back and didn't want to see Alex do the same.

"You'll be smart to realize neither Hank or Sean have called home either. The only time Sean has spoken to his parents was to say he wasn't coming back from vacation for a while." No, there boys all had their troubles and while Charles wanted to fix them, Erik would leave them be. He wasn't one for hypocrisy and forcing others to come clean about themselves would only dig a deeper trench in between himself and those boys. They already didn't trust him, they didn't need more ammo. "They will speak when it becomes too much to bare and we will be there to pick up the pieces as good men would."

But Erik wasn't a good man, or not as good as those boys deserved. But they had Charles which Erik mused was enough because what good was he when he was doing the same thing. They knew he had been in the Holocaust and that he hunted Nazi and Shaw but they didn't know the pain he caused families and strangers as he passed through towns and tore them up for answers. Maybe one day he would tell them but it would take time, the time he was willing to give the other's so that they could sort themselves out first.

"Raven seems to be doing well with your training, more confident in herself. She's been blue the whole day and completely not bothered by it. She's happy." Which makes Charles happy because as long as Raven is happy then so is he. And as much as he'd like to take the credit for her happiness he knows its Erik's pushing for her to concentrate that has forced her to stop trying to hide her natural self and instead embrace it. The older man definitely has a way, as abrasive as it is, that forces one to accept who they are and ignore what society says.

Erik nodded lightly and took to drinking his coffee yet again, letting his mind wander as a light jazz song floated around. It was a wonder that Erik was even still there, he had so many plans to kill the man who ruined his life and killed his mother but once Darwin died and Angel left Erik was faced with the responsibility of bringing these people together. Charles could say all that he wanted but Erik wasn't stupid, it had been his fault that those kids had been recruited at all and he had to face the responsibility that came with it in the end. They could have all gone back to where they were before but that didn't seem like a place any of them wanted to go since they already decided to go with Charles to his childhood home.

Sean turned down his radio when Alex slammed his door, a unspoken agreement between them to acknowledge that Alex would be going to bed soon. The red head didn't know why his floor mate had to sleep in silence but Sean figured it was like how he had to sleep in total darkness because otherwise it took so much longer then necessary to fall asleep. He saw cross leg in the center of his bed, The Great Gatsby open on his bed with come papers in his lap as he slowly finished the essay Charles had assigned him. He didn't mind Charles teaching classes because the man was good at it and Sean would be lying if he said he didn't like his voice. It was a nice voice.

"And we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." It had been a habit developed from his freshman year English teacher, that now he had to end his essays with moving quotes from the text. She had claimed it makes for a better ending then a conclusion, which he added as well because Charles would make him write one anyway, and Sean couldn't help but agree. And The Great Gatsby had some beautiful quotes that he had known without thought due to having read it by himself a few summers back.

He closed the book just as Raven wandered into his room, purple nail polish on one hand and two bottles of Coke and a bag of chips in the other. He waved her in, hopping off the bed to close the door behind her and didn't blink an eye as she rearranged his things and made herself comfortable on his bed. He joined her on the opposite end so she could paint his toes like she enjoyed. And he was use to it because of having to babysit and entertain several younger female cousins. "Why purple?"

"Why not? And all my other colors, besides black and white are dried out. I'm thinking of going out tomorrow to get more. Join me?" She pulled his foot onto her lap, pleased that his toes were still as well manicured as she left them last time and started painting. "Figured we can get Alex and Hank to come as well. Maybe Alex will chill if we all have some time without constant supervision. And there is this great new cafe in the mall that I really want to try. I saw an advertisement for it in the paper this morning."

Sean agreed. Alex wasn't that bad when he was chill, they had watched some tv together earlier and spent the time just shooting the shit. The older boy was pretty interesting if you spent some time just listening to what he was saying and not playing into his self confidence issues, but Hank probably didn't mean to do that since all he had to do was breath to piss off Alex. Sean didn't really get that but it was easier just to turn a blind eye then play into it. He took a gulp of his soda, it wasn't his place to try to make Alex get along with Hank, if he wanted to then he would. It would be pointless the force him to get along with anyone. Probably make him more resentful or something.

"Speaking of Alex, he's going to bed early tonight. Training with Erik must have gone poorly." Sean would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit bothered by Erik. The man had pushed him out a window and tended to be an enigma and Alex seemed to hate him more than even Hank. Though Sean wasn't even sure if it was hate.

Raven shrugged her shoulders and blew onto his left foot to dry the polish. "Metal head likes to push him." Raven didn't like Erik much either, felt like he was infringing on her life or something, Sean wasn't sure. The only person that seemed to truly enjoy Erik's presence was Charles and sometimes Hank, depending on the conversation and time of day. "But Alex probably deserved it, he pushes everyone else."

Sean shrugged, fighting to stop from laughing as she blew across his toes again. His feet had always been horribly ticklish, something everyone liked to use against him once they learned about it. Raven grinned at him but didn't attempt to torture him because she didn't want to redo her work. He took that foot back and placed the other onto her lap, watching as she poked the tip of her tongue out between her teeth and concentrated as hard as she could on making sure to paint them well. The first time they had done this Charles had thought Raven had forced him to let her paint his toenails but Sean was quick to dismiss those thoughts and admit to letting her. It was pretty nice to just sit and munch and talk and Raven enjoyed the little girlishness that came with painting someone else's toenails.

"I say we get bright yellow polish. I want yellow toes." There was an unspoken 'and they would match my uniform' that went with it that caused them both to start cackling. Raven was easy to get along with. She grew up with a guy so she understood that Sean wasn't just a gender confused girl but a chill guy who just didn't care too much. She was also really easy to converse with. Unlike every other girl who either blew him off or tried to mommy him. He had his own mother, he didn't need someone else to play the role. Raven didn't mommy so it was all good.

Hank hung up the phone with an annoyed sigh. Calling his parents was always a bit of a hassle, dad worked long hours and mom was constantly traveling or at the bridge club. He had intentions of telling them that he had moved but they honestly probably wouldn't care. Their lives were much too busy to worry about their genius son who had been taking care of himself since he was old enough to use the bathroom himself. But it still would be nice to be able to tell his mother his phone number and address just so she would know it. Though, Hank thought, it wouldn't make much of a difference. They rarely spoke to him anyway.

"When do you think you'll have Cerebro up and running?" A English accent asked from the doorway to the lab. Hank didn't waste the energy to turn around and see Charles, the accent was a dead give away anyway and also the way there was no scuffling when he walked.

"Honestly? I have no idea. Hopefully soon but if things keep going wrong like they are now then its completely up in the air." There was a hint of agitation in his voice and it annoyed him because Hank was usually very good at keeping is agitation to a minimum. But the resident genius had a limit to how much shit he could deal with and it was almost at maximum. With his parents ignoring him, his job gone and Cerebro parts not working or not coming in, everything was just weighing down on him like a ton of bricks. Even the math equations he usually used to calm down weren't working out to the correct answer. He liked math because it was the same in every country but at this moment it seemed math and science seemed to be different in Westchester then from DC.

Charles floated forward and put a comforting hand onto the taller one's shoulder. "No hurry, I'm sure we can find mutants just by walking outside. And I'm sure when she is done, she'll be perfect. Better than her original form." Charles didn't have to read Hank's mind to know he was stressed about other things but he didn't want to make it worse by speaking of things he knew nothing about. Hank was happy for that because there were way too many people, Alex, who talked about things they didn't understand. Though Hank couldn't be positive that Alex didn't know because the younger blond pretty much did his best to never let too much of his past slip into any conversation.

Gently, Hank shrugged off the older man's hand and moved away from the desk. He'd had enough of working for the night, especially after messing up a simple 'find the area' equation that he had written for himself. Honestly the only way the night could have gotten worse was if someone had used all the hot water for his shower. Which had only happened once and it was Raven's fault so he honestly couldn't have gotten mad in the slightest. Sometimes he found himself too far into his crush that Raven could kill someone and destroy all of mutant humanity and it wouldn't bother him. A very sad truth.

"Raven brought out apple pie after dinner and there is a slice left over for you in the fridge for when you'd like it." Charles stated before leaving the scientist to do whatever he wanted with the rest of the night.

Hank followed the man out not long after, deciding that his dilemmas would have to wait because apple pie, no matter how cold, sounded so much better then continual stressing. And while Raven wasn't the best baker or chef, she did have a few choice things she was great at making and apple pie was one of them. How American of her. He chuckled softly to himself and quickened his pace to the fridge, anticipation killing him.

It was odd to be in the kitchen when it was empty, usually someone was always in there sitting on the counters or their head in the freezer looking for something to fill their stomachs before lunch or dinner. Or sometimes breakfast because certain people, Sean and Erik, had bizarre sleeping patterns that forced them to only be able to sleep six hours, if that, before they were up and fully functioning while there is Alex who, if allowed, sleeps until 5pm, no matter what time he went to bed. And for Raven, Charles and himself it just depends on how tired they were or what time they went to sleep. Honestly an empty kitchen was pretty uncomfortable.

The piece of pie was sat lovingly onto a china place with a little note with his name on it attached. Hank first got rid of the note, it wasn't edible and the sloppy writing meant that Sean had labeled it for him. Hank was quite surprised that he could even read it. He was surprised when anyone could read Sean's chicken scratch. And next he pulled out the pie and whipped cream because he thought it blaspheme when someone ate pie without whipped cream. No matter temperature.

Hank pulled himself onto the counter and dug into the pile, moaning with happiness. At least there was one thing that had gone right tonight.


End file.
